ALL-REGION GIRLS SOCCER: Falcone powers Classics to PIAAs

Elana Falcone and Scranton Prep made history last season by being one of two girls teams to win a state playoff game, firsts for any Lackawanna League girls team.

Coming into her senior year, Falcone made it clear anything less than that would be considered a failure — a challenge her teammates answered.

Led by Falcone, the Classics went 16-2-1, won the Lackawanna League championship, the District 2 Class AA title and were victorious in their PIAA first-round matchup for the second straight season.

For her efforts and leadership, Falc o ne has been selected The TimesTribune Girls Soccer Player of the Year.

“She is determined,” Scranton Prep coach Doug Knieser said. “Right from when we got started, she was determined to get back to the same spot. We had kind of heard that we weren’t going to be as good this year, and she was determined to make sure that we were just as good.

“She wasn’t going to settle for anything less.”

In the regular season, Falcone, who was also The Times-Tribune Player of the Year in 2011, led the Classics with 23 goals and nine assists. Scranton Prep won 12 games and avenged its first loss of the season to Wallenpaupack, winning, 2-0, in the Lackawanna League Big School championship.

In three district playoff games, she scored five goals, including two in the Classics’ 3-1 victory over Dallas in the championship game, their third straight title.

And in Scranton Prep’s PIAA first-round game against Blue Mountain, Falcone scored two goals — the first coming 51 seconds into the match — to help her squad roll to an 8-3 victory.

Falcone led the c harge, Knieser said, with a smile on her face, sheer love of the game and by treating everybody equally.

“A lot of ( what makes her special) is just her personality; there’s no ego about her whatsoever,” he said. “When she’s in practice and when she’s in games, she’s having f un. She treats the freshmen t he same as she she treats her own classmates.

“When your best player carries herself like that, it really just carries over to the rest of the team.”

Despite the impressive numbers — including a schoolrecord 81 career goals — Falcone, who will continue her academic and athletic careers at Temple University, never considered herself superior and knew that there was always room for improvement.

“She’s very coachable,” Knieser said. “She can be criticized, too, and she’s OK with that. She doesn’t have the approach that she knows better than everyone else, and I think that’s another one of her positive traits.” Contact the writer: shennigan@timesshamrock.com

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